Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.) told ABC News on Sunday that the FBI is investigating “persons of interest” inside the United States connected to the Boston bombing.

“There are persons of interest in the United States,” said Ruppersberger, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. “We’re looking at phone calls before and after the bombing, this type of investigation.”

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) added, “There are still persons of interest in the United States that the FBI would like to have conversations with.” But “the big unknown,” he said, was the six months Tamerlan Tsarnaev spent in Russia.

Christian Caryl of the New York Review of Books claims to have found Misha, who told Caryl that he hadn’t spoken to Tsarnaev in three years, that he’s cooperating with the feds by giving them his phone and computer, and that “If I had been his teacher, I would have made sure he never did anything like this.” Supposedly the feds are about to close his case. As one mystery ends, though, another begins: How can it be that the feds didn’t find out from Russian intelligence until recently that Tamerlan talked jihad with mama Tsarnaev two years ago?

The vague substance of the phone calls was shared only a few days ago with U.S. officials investigating the April 15 bombing near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, which killed three people and injured more than 260.

“It was two very general conversations not shared until recently,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to share details of the investigation.

No explanation was given for why Russian authorities waited so long to tell U.S. authorities about the telephone calls. The information could have provided an additional reason for U.S. authorities to heighten scrutiny of bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26.

So that’s what Mike Rogers meant a few days ago when he grumbled about the Russians not telling us everything they knew. But wait — didn’t Russian intel tell the FBI in 2011 that Tamerlan and his mother were suspected of being “religious extremists,” in CBS’s words? What’s the difference between that and the two of them having a “general” conversation about jihad? Surely the feds could have inferred from the Russians’ worries that Tamerlan was preparing to walk the walk, not just talk the talk. I’m guessing they looked the other way because they figured “extremism” meant Tsarnaev would end up taking off for Chechnya to go fight there, not bomb marathon crowds here in the U.S. That’s … really stupid, but if surveillance resources are scarce, you can sort of understand why a budding jihadi who appears to be focused on Dagestan would be a lower priority.

One more mystery. Does this explanation of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s preternatural calm after the bombings really add up?

“It’s scary to think that he was around here, listening to everyone talking about the bombers and stuff like that,” Bobby Kedski, a sophomore at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, said of Dzhokhar, a fellow student there, whom he saw working out in a campus gym on Tuesday night. “He was just amongst us, taking it all in. It’s scary to think about that.”

Slipping back into a routine after committing a crime, even an atrocity, is fairly typical behavior, said Dr. Stuart W. Twemlow, a retired professor of psychology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. He works on threat assessment with the F.B.I. and helped on the Columbine shootings, among other cases.

A return to business as usual helps a criminal “blot out the horror with which he was associated,” Dr. Twemlow said.

“That is a normal, dissociative response,” he said, adding that the younger brother, whose movements were more public, had most likely “denied and compartmentalized what he had just done.”

Yeah, but he hadn’t dissociated completely. There were sly tweets afterward about how there “ain’t no love in the heart of the city” and how he’s a “stress free kind of guy.” In the photos at the marathon, he’s the one with an enigmatic smile on his face, not Tamerlan. He wasn’t so overwhelmed by what he’d done that he surrendered meekly when his brother, whom he claims was the mastermind, was pinched by Boston cops. He actually drove over him in his haste to get out of there and stay on the run. What’s the difference between a criminal who resorts to routine in order to cope with his guilt and a criminal who resorts to routine because he’s sociopathically untroubled by his crimes?

Blowback

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Well, we KNOW that it cannot possibly be Abdul Rahman Ali Alharbi, who THIS administration had on a terror watch list and was set to deport him under Section 212, 3B — ‘Security and related grounds’ — BEFORE the Boston Marathon bombing.

A return to business as usual helps a criminal “blot out the horror with which he was associated,” Dr. Twemlow said.

I don’t get a sense that either terrorist needed to blot out the horror. They were sociopaths on a mission for their god. You aren’t going to be victorious for Allah if you worry about the fact you just planted a bomb directly in front of an eight-year-old and his seven-year-old sister.

Clearly, these were just willing messengers for the religion of peace. I want to know who really made the IEDs.

Does anyone want to take a stab at explaining why Michelle Obama visited Abdul Rahman Ali Alharbi in the hospital, but not American, Jeff Bauman, Jr, who lost both of his legs and would have died but not for the heroism of Carlos Arredondo?

Resist We Much on April 29, 2013 at 11:28 AM

Oh! Lets start with something easier. Why is the rat-eared coward’s aunt, an illegal, still in the country?

I don’t pretend to know why Mooch would visit one victim but not another. Personally, seeing that angry racist woman is the last thing I would want after having been a bombing victim solely through the incompetence of her rat-eared spouse.

Crap. They are going to round up the tea party, NRA members, and doctors opposed to obamacare!
I think they need to round up the mom, the wife, the dad, and the aunt and send them to GITMO. Give the goats a break !!

I can actually buy into the theory that Speedbump went nuts over not being able to box. Why work at something when you can be famous and probably rich? It’s not like there aren’t plenty of examples of it happening.

But wait — didn’t Russian intel tell the FBI in 2011 that Tamerlan and his mother were suspected of being “religious extremists,” in CBS’s words? What’s the difference between that and the two of them having a “general” conversation about jihad?

Problem being, we’re dealing with the Putin regime. From what I gather, the parents previously had been non-violent trouble makers — human rights lawyers against the Russians in Chechnya. Given that Putin is willing to give church service disrupters multiple years in Russian prison (rather than, say a $200 fine) I’d be skeptical about vague warnings from the FSB over a family of regime opponents.

I think it’s fatally naive to think that because the brothers’ bomb design wasn’t in al Qaeda’s crappy magazine, it wasn’t an al Qaeda design. Do we really think the magazine is their only way of spreading their particularly vicious gospel?

I hate it when I’m right…and the present dhimmi administration intentionally bungles an investigation.

Only some in this admin are dhimmi. Some are muslims acting on behalf of the ROP and making progress into turning this Republic into a muslim state.

“Lone wolves”

Ah yes, the LSM and government description supposed to ease public fear and anxiety.

More like a part of the islamic wolfpack deliberately allowed to thrive in the US and make targets of its people, too many still, who can’t or won’t come to terms with the dangers we face with growing islamic present here.

too many still, who can’t or won’t come to terms with the dangers we face with growing islamic present here.

hawkeye54 on April 29, 2013 at 11:55 AM

What danger? We haven’t had one successful Islamic attack since we elected Barak Hussein Obama to the presidency. That Little Rock recruiting station murder was an anti-war protest. Nadal Hassan went postal at Fort Hood. And the Boston Marathon bombing was due to Tamerlan suffering from too many blows to the head while boxing. And those failed attempts like the Times Square bomb were simply troubled souls seeking attention.

His movements, actions and texts are more indicative of a psychopath than some garden variety dissociative response, you idiot.

This terrorist knew what he did, realized the horror, the murder and maiming. Reveled in the glory, notoriety and empowerment. Boasted of his ability to handle the after affects. Engaged in a fire fight with police and then surrendered to save his own life.

We haven’t had one successful Islamic attack since we elected Barak Hussein Obama to the presidency. That Little Rock recruiting station murder was an anti-war protest. Nadal Hassan went postal at Fort Hood. And the Boston Marathon bombing was due to Tamerlan suffering from too many blows to the head while boxing. And those failed attempts like the Times Square bomb were simply troubled souls seeking attention.

Imagine if these guys could coordinate bombings in several cities at once. Security can only be ramped up only for so long. Every major and minor metro area still are quite vulnerable.

hawkeye54 on April 29, 2013 at 12:41 PM

Face it, the Boston Marathon bombing pissed off more than it really caused terror. For my money the most effective TERROR attack of recent years was the DC Sniper.

Imagine if you will, multiple groups of two or three who target random shopping mall parking lots nationwide during the holiday season. Double-tap a victim and get out of there pronto only to repeat again hundreds of miles away in some other shopping mall. That would cause terror.

He didn’t get nervous until he thought he and his brother had been identified. Me, me, me, me……

avagreen on April 29, 2013 at 1:04 PM

More to the point (as far as I’m concerned) there has never been an expression of regret even though he has apparently told the FBI that he and his brother did it. You’d think his terrorist-loving douchebag of a lawyer would try to get something along those lines out there if the defense is going to be that his older and conveniently dead brother was some kind of evil manipulator.

Does anyone want to take a stab at explaining why Michelle Obama visited Abdul Rahman Ali Alharbi in the hospital, but not American, Jeff Bauman, Jr, who lost both of his legs and would have died but not for the heroism of Carlos Arredondo?

I can actually buy into the theory that Speedbump went nuts over not being able to box. Why work at something when you can be famous and probably rich? It’s not like there aren’t plenty of examples of it happening.

Cindy Munford on April 29, 2013 at 11:41 AM

Betcha you are correct. Now speedbump will forever be known as speedbump. The moron burnt his own face with his Islamic jacket and then got run over by his widdle terrorist loser brother who will live in a small cell for the rest of his life instead of being free in America.

Slipping back into a routine after committing a crime, even an atrocity, is fairly typical behavior, said Dr. Stuart W. Twemlow, a retired professor of psychology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

This terrorist knew what he did, realized the horror, the murder and maiming. Reveled in the glory, notoriety and empowerment. Boasted of his ability to handle the after affects.

Marcus Traianus on April 29, 2013 at 12:12 PM

That!!! He tweeted ‘I’m a stress-free kinda guy’ a few days after the bombing, that’s sociopathic at best, not ‘dissociative response’ by any stretch of imagination. Also ‘there’s no love in the heart of the city’ sounds quite the cold blood, sociopathic thing to say/tweet right after you blow people.

“That is a normal, dissociative response,” he said, adding that the younger brother, whose movements were more public, had most likely “denied and compartmentalized what he had just done.”

BS. That’s “normal” behavior for a sociopath. He knew what he did and it did not bother him. There is a witness who says he was ready to do it again in Times Square.

This took a long time to plan and prepare. He had a long time to think about what he was going to do. And he knew exactly what he was doing when he put a bomb down next to eight and six year old children, walked away, and then detonated it.

“The younger brother… denied and compartmentalized what he had just done” my a$$.

Is this guy looking to make some money as an “expert” witness for the defense? You can be sure a jury will be hearing this crap from some “expert” headshrinker witness, assuming the child murdering sociopath doesn’t plea bargain to avoid the death penalty.